As you drive the gravel road out of Cold Bay on the Alaska Peninsula, the peaks of Pavlof Volcano and Pavlof Sister, some 40 miles away, frame a wide expanse of flat tundra dotted with small lakes.
Just about nobody knows the area better than Hap Kremer. Kremer grew up playing in the abandoned, World War II-era Quonset huts and cement bunkers scattered across the area. He's been living in the community on and off since his family moved here in 1975.
So two years ago, he was surprised when a childhood friend said he had found a photograph showing a previously unknown World War II cemetery. The friend used Google Earth to narrow down a possible location and asked Kremer to check it out.
Last month, on a hill just outside of town, Kremer pointed to a line of weathered fence posts about 100 yards long.
"A photo of that fence that was up, a white picket fence that sat right there," Kremer said, describing the photo his friend had shown him. "There was people coming up this road that we just drove up. There's a long line of people coming up to bury someone here."
The fence once marked the edge of the Fort Randall Post Cemetery, a burial ground used during WWII. The remains of U.S. and Russian service members were later exhumed and returned to their families, and the cemetery's location faded from public knowledge.
"I just came out here with the picture," Kremer said. The photograph matched the location perfectly.
"He was right on the money," Kremer said. "It took me about three minutes to find it."
Michael Livingston is the friend who helped Kremer find the site. He's a former Cold Bay resident and military history enthusiast. He first saw the photograph on the Alaska Military History Association's website and recognized it as his home town.
But even after Kremer confirmed the location, Livingston struggled to find any records of a cemetery existing there. But he said he eventually acquired a hand-drawn map from the National Archives that confirmed it.
Livingston said the buried soldiers were exhumed after the war and their remains sent to their families. As Cold Bay's population shrank, memory of the graveyard also faded.
"The cemetery was forgotten about," he said. "Nobody knew its location until just recently."
The Aleutian campaign is often referred to as the Forgotten War. Although Cold Bay didn't host any battles, it was a crucial base during the 1942 Battle of Dutch Harbor, as well as the Japanese invasions of Attu and Kiska the following year.
Seven airmen from Cold Bay were killed in action after bombing a Japanese aircraft carrier that had launched an attack on Dutch Harbor. Some of those airmen may have been among the 36 service members buried at the cemetery — 33 Americans and three Russians.
The Federal Aviation Administration now owns the land. Livingston is working with the agency to formally recognize the site of the former cemetery.
"Even though the remains are gone, it's still considered sacred ground," he said. "It would be nice to have it memorialized."
